Judicial Services Commission to review selection process for judicial officers

 

The Judicial Services Commission is to re-examine the process of the recruitment and appointment of judicial officers. Members of the Commission are to embark on a retreat to design a clearly defined selection process. 

 

Chief Justice Brian Sykes says choosing competent individuals is critical to achieving a more just society. He says the judiciary plays a critical role in the fight against crime and violence. 

 

"So the activities of the police, when they go out and they improve their efficiency and arrest persons, in a democracy, you have only two choices. You either put them before the courts or you release them. And so courts have a vital role to play in this whole question of control of crime and making Jamaica a secure, cohesive and just society. But that now has to be translated now into who are the persons who are going to be presiding in our courts

or how do we select them. So what we have been doing is that we have shifted away, persons may have noticed, from this heavy reliance on seniority. And so we say that seniority only comes in as a tiebreaker," noted the Chief Justice.  

 

Justice Sykes was speaking Thursday at the swearing-in of two new judges.

 

Meanwhile, he said digital recordings are to be utilised for the timely production of transcripts from court proceedings. 

 

"One of the enduring problems that we have been having is the timely production of transcripts. And so digital recordings will be assisting us in producing the record in a timely way so we have less complaints about delays. So we should be introducing it beginning on Monday and gradually over time it will spread throughout all of our courts," he said.